Video: Migraines and Sleep

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Wednesday, July 08, 2009
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Has the doctor you see for your Migraines or headaches ever asked you about your sleep? No? Hmmmmmmmm... Good sleep patterns and good quality sleep are essential to our health and quality of life. What's more, sleep issues can be Migraine triggers. Too little sleep, too much sleep, disrupted sleep...

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Untitled Comment
Denise Garrett
Wednesday, July 08, 2009 at 01:46 PM

My personal experience and opinion is that every person is different. Like for me, I do better with 8-10 hours of sleep. I had a headache specialist tell me that, "Well, if you get 6 hours, that would be okay." Well, I know my body and I don't function well without enough sleep, then I tend to get more migraines and headaches when I'm tired. So, I'd rather feel refreshed and get my rest. I have anxiety issues and have medications I take for that. If I don't take them, I can't sleep, and my mind goes wild. However, with the medications, I sleep more. Now, my body is getting better with the medicine, and I'm getthing up a little bit earlier. Still about 10 hours is what I get, and feel good with!

Denise

re: Untitled Comment
Teri Robert
Wednesday, July 08, 2009 at 01:59 PM

Good for you, Denise!

You're quite right that we're all different. I'm at my best with 8 - 10 hours of sleep. If, for some reason, I get less or more sleep than that, it will often trigger a Migraine.

I'm so glad you've come to know what YOU need.

Teri

Sleep Inquiry
Lynne
Thursday, July 09, 2009 at 07:22 AM

I've moved, due to family job tranfers, 3 times over the past 6 years, and I pleased to report that this was one of the top five question each of the neurologists specializing in migraine management asked. Innability, or interruption of a healthy sleep pattern is a migraine trigger for me, and finding was to manage this, whether due to pain from other physical issues or life events, have helped greatly.

re: Sleep Inquiry
Teri Robert
Thursday, July 09, 2009 at 01:31 PM

Lynne,

That's great! It seems that more Migraine specialists are now asking all of their patients about their sleep, and it's really great to see that happening.

It's also REALLY great to see that you've found something that helps you.

Teri

re: re: Sleep Inquiry
Diana
Thursday, July 09, 2009 at 07:27 PM

I think this is a great topic, and I really like what Denise said. I think we all need to listen to what our body is telling us in terms of how much sleep we need. I could never function well on 6 hours of sleep. I'd be dragging myself around all day.

Although I never struggled in getting 8 hours of sleep it took awhile for me to realize that my sleep quality was actually poor. Sure I slept through the night, but I was also grinding my teeth and waking up with neck pain-- not really understanding the amount of tension i was creating in my body as i slept.

To this day, every night before i go to sleep I practice some autogenic training for about 20 minutes. This puts my mind and body in a state of total relaxation, (i'd call it bliss actually.) It has made all the difference in quality of sleep i now get. I don't think i will ever let myself fall off to sleep now without first doing some form of deep relaxation practice.

I used to think that poor sleep meant that people would wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to fall back to sleep, or that they would toss and turn all night, or have wild dreams that woke them up. I'm glad i finally realized that those were not the ONLY indicators of poor sleep.

Diana

Sleep and migraine
Marie
Thursday, July 09, 2009 at 10:33 PM

I know first hand the importance of good quality sleep. I am having very few migraines since I had a sleep study and was Rx CPAP. I stopped breathing so many times during the hour that the 8 hours of sleep was ridiculously cut to very few. I though I had countered insomnia with relaxation and other self help method, It did help me with pain ( but not migraine) So for me it's the machine I so afraid to not be able to sleep with it .Surprisely I got used to it a very short time. The head pain I had every morning dissapeared. The migraine used to start about 3-4 in the morning, now it's 3-4 p.m and very seldom. ( now I am going to pay for that bragging) It was my dentist who suggest to have a sleep study, funny.......

Marie

Insomnia!
Sandy
Friday, July 10, 2009 at 09:36 AM

The migraines have been really bad here lately!! I have insomnia and can't sleep, if I do go to sleep, it's only for 1 to 2 hrs. Any suggestions? My doctor put me on something for insomnia but it doesn't help! I know what a walking zombie feels like though. Please any help at all would be greatly appreciated!

Sandy